Google Is Once Again Deemed a Monopoly, This Time in Ad Tech

A federal judge ruled today that Google is a monopolist in some parts of the online advertising market, marking the second case in a year where the company was found to have violated US antitrust law. Last August, a federal judge ruled that Google was maintaining an illegal monopoly in search. Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia determined that Google illegally monopolized parts of its advertising technology business to dominate the programmatic ad market, a major source of revenue for the company. Google generated nearly $30.4 billion in worldwide revenue last year from placing ads on other apps and websites. Now, a substantial portion of those sales are threatened by penalties that may follow Brinkema’s ruling. A best-case scenario for US consumers is a browsing experience filled with fewer ads and paywalls and more content choices. “In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, [Google’s] exclusionary conduct substantial ... Read full article.